Hi, Ghouls. Rainbow-striped flags are flying everywhere, which must mean it’s the best time of Pride Month. At Monster High, everyone belongs, and Pride Month is a time to skelebrate and show extra love to the LGBTQIA+ community. First, Hannah Templer (Cosmoknights) and Siobhan Keenan (Big Ethel Energy) conjure a story about expectations and role models. Clawdeen and Toralei are claws over tails for each other…but their summer DIY project, and a group of mischievous gnomes, is threatening the ghouls’ relationship! Meanwhile, Ghoulia is writing fan fiction and is on the verge of starting a shipping war! Then, Megan Brown (My Little Classics Reimagined—Little Fillies) and Bowen McCurdy (Specter Inspectors) brew a fang-tastic love story. Kieran Valentine thinks love sucks. He enlists the help of his (very cute) Bite-ology partner, Spelldon Cauldronello, to create a potion that will drain him of the feeling forever. But after spending time with Spelldon, will he have the guts to follow through? Get in from the start as IDW kicks off a whole new run of comics set on the most spooktacularly inclusive campus!
This was adorable and the art was gorgeous. Out of the two stories, I liked the first one better, but loved the second one too. Monster High will never fail to make me happy.
I always love seeing the diversity Monster High gives us so to have a Pride comic for it now sitting on my shelf really made me smile.
The adventures are fun and cute. We also meet some new LGBT characters too like Bridgette the troll (who’s sapphic) and her girlfriend who I adored.
Rep// Afro-Latina Sapphic MC, Sapphic MC & SC’s, MLM MC’s. There are two stories featured, one focusses on sapphic / WLW characters and the other on achillean / MLM characters.
the chapters were so short and i definitely like valentine’s the most, knowing everything is canon made me not care about how surface level everything was
i love monster high so much and this was absolutely delicious for pride month. there were horror-related puns on every page and the art is SOOOO good. also the messages about giving each other space in a healthy relationship??? /chef's kiss 🤌🏻 love it. also i LOVE jackie lope 😍 she looks like a viera from final fantasy xii/xiv 💖
I am a Monster High girlie and when I saw they were doing a PRIDE comic, I knew it was made for me! 😍 The comic itself is short and split into two stories. The first follows Clawdeen and Toralei as they navigate their relationship with communication. The second follows Valentine and Spelldon as they fall in love. I really enjoyed both and bought two different cover editions! 🥰 It says it's the first in a new series so I’m super excited for more! ☺️
Overall I'd give it 4 stars. It's cool to see Monster High finally able to do LGBT+ content. This comic has 2 stories. First is one about Clawdeen x Toralei, the second is Kieran x Spelldon.
Clawdeen x Toralei - I consider this one the weaker of the 2 stories, maybe like 3 stars. For many people this pairing feels out of left field, it was never hinted at in the past. And this story doesn't really help you get into the pairing. The girls are already a couple before the start of the comic, we don't get to learn how they got together. This comic's plotline is a simple tale of the girls wanting to plan a hangout in the woods but don't see eye to eye. They get some help from some comic original characters, and these characters end up upstaging the main couple for me. There's also a B-plot about Ghoulia that is completely pointless and could have been cut out. I'm still interested in future stories with this couple to see how their relationship evolves.
Kieran x Spelldon - This felt like the stronger story although it's shorter. There's also a history with this pairing. If you've been a fan of Monster High in the past, then you might know that Kieran Valentine was a character that was a movie villain before starting a redemption arc when he got a limited doll release. There were plans to have Kieran be revealed as gay, with him being interested in a witch boy called Spelldon. Unfortunately the executives turned down the idea. Now nearly a decade later, fans got to read about their relationship! This is a fun story about Kieran wanting to give up on love, and he tries to convince Spelldon to work on an anti-love potion for him.
I can accept Clawdeen as a lesbian, but I really can't see Clawdeen x Torelai as a couple, I'm sorry. They both just feel so OOC. I did like Ghoulia as a gamer girl + fanfiction writing queen, though. And Jackie Lope and fellow introvert Bridgett Roll! Ooh, it'd be so nice to have dolls of them.
I Put A Spell On You
I love seeing Valentine's friendship with Whisp, and it's a nice tie-in to their box set together. I read this in anticipation for Valentine's and Spelldon's doll release tomorrow. They're cute together, but the story is definitely limited by its shortness.
This was such a cute comic! The stories are short and sweet, and the artwork is so lovely and fun to look at.
I've been a fan of the MH franchise for over a decade now, and I'm so happy we finally got a canon design for Spelldon, and I adore how all of the characters are portrayed across these stories. Reading this made me very happy! 💗🏳️🌈
"Summer Fangout" felt kind of generic, and the pairing seemed forced. I think it would’ve been more interesting to see the origins of Clawdeen and Toralei’s relationship, especially since Toralei had a boyfriend in the movies. As for "I Put a Spell on You”, I liked how they showed what happened to Valentine.
talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender
Fangtastic fun! My favorite MH queer couple is Cleo and Frankie, so it's kind of meh that this is G1 so they're not canon here (and Frankie is back to being a cis girl and not nonbinary like they are in (the far superior) G3) but Clawdeen and Torelei are cute too!
I remember watching the Monster High series on YouTube for the first time when I was 6. I have been the biggest fan ever since and watched every movie! Now, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I loved reading this!